Game 18 : Habs vs Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers (12-4-2) roll into Montreal (11-5-1) tonight and it should be a doozy. Playoff rivals squaring off in an early conference race makes for great hockey. Both teams come in with a 3 game winning streak and have been playing some incredible hockey this past week.

Carey Price was named NHL's star of the week. Improving his record to 10-5-1 with a 2.18 GAA and a 9.20 Sv%. Tomas Plekanec is also red hot with 4 points in his last game. The line shuffle by J-Mart is producing more offensively. I don't expect that to change tonight.

Over on the Flyers, Mike Richards has 5 goals in his last 3 games, and nine points in the last ten games. Claude Giroux is also having a great start to the season with 10 goals and 11 assists so far.

Michael Leighton, Carcillo, Laperriere and Walker are out of the lineup for Philly, while Andrei "Silk Knees" Markov is again injured for the Habs. I don't mean to rag on this guy, he's done some remarkable work over the years. However, whenever the Canadiens are doing well, this guy seems to always injure himself. Call me crazy, but I don't worry like I used to when he's out of the lineup.

I expect this game to kick off to a very quick start. Lots of goals and it's going to be a very physical game. The Habs will use their speed to fend off the size of Philly, however if last year's conference finals were any indication, the Habs need to keep their feet moving or Philly will drive right through them.

Carey Price and Sergei Bobrovsky are expected to get the calls tonight in nets.

Game starts at 7:00pm and is being aired on Versus, RDS, and TSN-HABSHD

6 Comments

I've decided I'm no longer doing predictions lol. But it should be a good game, playoff atmosphere. If there was ever a game the Canadiens needed to win, it was this one. The Flyers have had the Habs numbers recently, especially when it counts, and it's time to send a message that they can be beat. I hope the troupes can rally despite the Markov injury. But it should be a fun game nonetheless.